There is a widely accepted premise that if we don’t get what we want, we’ll be miserable. However, psychologists are challenging this assumption and can now show that our “psychological immune system” lets us feel truly happy even when things don’t go as planned.

Author and Harvard Psychologist Dan Gilbert explains that, in our ardent, lifelong pursuit of happiness, most of us have the wrong map. Our beliefs about what will make us happy are often wrong — a premise he supports with intriguing research.

In the same way that optical illusions fool our eyes, Gilbert shows us that our brains systematically misjudge what will make us happy.